In progress: the continued allure of solids...

Once you complete a project that's all solids, it's hard to go back. For me, at least. There's a... seduction in "perfectly" executed color blocking. Maybe it's that I can't quite visualize prints playing together before they're sewn together. Not with the same precision that I can "see" with solids. Or maybe, it's the comfort that if you run out of a solid, you can always get more. (It's only annoying to run out mid-project, as the dye lot will be slightly different.) Especially with manufacturers making limited runs for print collections these days, it's liberating to not have to plan for the best use of that piece of print. So yeah. Relationship with solids? Still falling. :)

So, okay, enough with the musing, onwards to two recent unfinished projects.

...a baby quilt-in-progress for a nautical nursery. Said baby L is only a few weeks old, and the quilt top is basted, so I'm actually doing okay!

(Bad camera phone shot)

This is yet-another-failed-attempt at a wholecloth quilt. I can't help it. There's always some little bit of piecing I want to do.  In this case, it was a stylized sailboat and a pair of gulls, because the sky looked a little lonely without them. Of course, I drew up an Illustrator file for the boat and layout, but ended up eyeball-piecing in the end. That said, now I need to make a paper-piecing pattern for it, because it is seriously cute!! The gulls were more improvised; I nearly scrapped my initial attempt, but realized I could salvage it, and I'm glad I did.

Originally, this was going to be a two-sided quilt, with this for the other side:

(Another bad camera phone shot)

...but the hubby pointed out it'd be entirely too busy, so I guess I'm saving the fish for another occasion. These torpedo fish aren't as cute as the sailboat.

I ended up converting the green-blue-white stripe I was going to use as a binding into a backing instead. I found I had just enough of a bold red and white stripe (that emphasizes the nautical idea!) to use for binding. I have this quilt all basted, my beginner FMQ skills are dusted off (more on that soon)... expect Quilt #4 soon!

(Speaking of dye lot differences, there are two different shades of Kona Royal in the above two quilt tops. It's hard to tell, but there if you look for it. Still annoying.)

Fabric used: Kona royal blue, grass green, candy blue, cornflower blue*, corn yellow, bits of some prints

* = only color not available at Joann's.